Worldwide Wednesday #1 | Namibia

Yay! today is the first Worldwide Wednesday recipe on Have Another Bite! The idea of Worldwide Wednesday was conceived last month when I wanted to post more recipes of worldwide cuisines more consistently. Wha tmakes this concept so much fun for myself as for you guys, is that every week I go this “random country picker” and get a randomly picked country. Then I go and try to find out new stuff about the country’s food culture, main dishes and finally I will prepare one of the countries famous, unknow, fun or strange dishes. It can be any dish as long as it is interesting and new.

The goal of Worldwide Wednesday is to find out about food cultures and new dishes and to share these with you! Since this is the very first Worldwide Wednesday I am really curious what you think about the concept. At the end of every post I will randomly pick a new country and ask you for tips, suggestions and unknown recipes!

Namibian cuisine

I’ve never been in Namibia, although I’d really love to go there. Have you seen the pictures of the Namibian wildlife and dessert? You should really take a look because it’s quite spectacular!
The Namibian Cuisine basically knows two culinary directions. The native african cuisine and the cuisine from colonial times established by the British and Germans. It’s quite hard to find a good information about traditional Namibian dishes but a dish that constantly appeared in my search for the Namib Cuisine is Potjiekos. This dish is a traditional stew that appears to have come a regular dish in namibia since ‘de voortrekkers’ (Descendents from west-european settlers, dutch speaking farmers that fled South Africa) came to Namibia. That’s why you’ll find the same dish in South Africa, where it’s called Potjiekos or Potjie kos.

Potjiekos

Potjiekos comes in many variations, it’s basically just a stew which is cooked in a large cast-iron three-legged pot above an open woodfire. Traditionally the Potjie (the pot) stays on the fire for about 3-4 hours and people gather around the fire to wait for the food to be ready, it’s a social event in that way as well. Potjiekos is usually a fish-based, meat-based or chicken-based stew with vegetables. But of course you can make a vegetarian potjiekos as well.

Lamb Potjiekos with vegetables

For this first Worldwide Wednesday I prepared a Potjiekos with lamb, for the veggies I used onion, potato and carrot. Making the dish is acutally quite easy. The preparation shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes and after that you can just leave it on the stove (or open woodfire if you like to do it Namibian style!) for about 3 hours.

Cut the lamb shoulder into slices, season with salt and pepper. Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan, cassserole or pot and brown the pieces of meat. Take the meat from the pot and set aside.

Place the onions in the pot and fry until tender, add the curry powder, turmeric, cloves, garlic and ginger and fry for about 4 minutes.

Add the meat again with the water. Cover the pot. and let simmer for 1 hour to let the flavors infuse.

Now add the carrots and potatoes and let simmer for at least 1,5 hour (the longer the more tender and tasty this dish becomes)

Stir the potjie now and then.

Add the milk and let simmer for another 15 minutes

Prepare the rice by following the packaging instructions.

Enjoy!

3.2.2929

Next week’s Worldwide Wednesday will be…

MYANMAR (BURMA)!

Myanmar! We were there almost 1 year ago. Which means that we have quite some inspiration for great burmese dishes, but…we want you to help us. So if you have any tips, hints or favorites from Myanmar/Burma…let me know in the comments below!!

Get Free Email Updates!

Subscribe to receive new recipes and posts directly in your inbox

I agree to have my personal information transfered to MailChimp ( more information )